The Weird Neighbour

The day that we waited for so long had finally arrived. Janell and I were excited when we met up at Toa Payoh MRT station, both of us wearing our biggest grins. Our appointment with the officer at HDB Hub was 3pm. We just couldn't wait to lay our hands on the keys to our first home.

"Let's get some lunch." I told Janell as I grabbed her hand tightly in mine and half-dragged her towards the nearest food court at HDB Hub. Laughing, Janell followed.

We had been married for only a year but we had known each other forever. She was my childhood sweetheart and while we lost contact for nearly ten years when my parents moved our family to Australia, fate had allowed me to meet Janell again when I came back after graduation. Our relationship developed quickly and we got married after two years of courtship. I knew that Janell had went through a lot during the years that I wasn't around and her world views differed vastly from mine. The biggest disparity was probably in the realm of our spiritual beliefs. I was pretty much an atheist while Janell was a little fanatic over following rituals of her religion. However, we dealt with the differences like mature adults before we got married and now we were both cool with how things stood between us. Well, most of the time.

Janell and I applied for a HDB 4-room flat shortly after we got together three years ago, and today, our singular hope of setting up our own home was coming true. Admittedly, we had a lot of restrictions staying with my parents, as my brother was also staying with us. There were quite a lot of inconveniences and I knew Janell put up with it because she looked forward to the day that we would get our home keys. I could see the excitement shining in her beautiful eyes as she looked at me lovingly across the table that we found at the food court.

As we tucked into our food, Janell told me about the rituals that she learnt from her religious mentor about new houses. According to the religious leader, we must do some spiritual cleansing when we first opened the door to a newly built house in the form of a simple ritual as there could be spirits lurking inside during the construction.

"They said that it was especially important when the apartment was built on top of sites which used to be cemeteries." Janell explained. "Our estate was built on top of an old cemetery, wasn't it?"

"Well, yes," I replied, "But I'm sure that the construction would not have started without some kind of prayers right?"

"We couldn't be sure, dear, so let's just do our best to cleanse the house." Janell said cheerfully.

I left it at that. I knew that she had been uncomfortable when she found out that the site of our new home was built on top of an old cemetery. However, her religious leader had told her that it was safe as long as we performed the necessary rituals. Her total, almost fanatic beliefs had made her completely reliant on this mentor of hers. I wasn't comfortable with it since I felt that faith shouldn't be about the human leaders but the relationship between the believer and God. Nonetheless, as an atheist, I didn't care much about it. Spiritual stuff were not in the realm of the living.

***

"Congratulations, Mr and Mrs Lim, on the collection of your keys for your first property! May this be the blissful start of your journey together."

The officer at HDB was so sweet. She laughed with us as we grinned like two kindergarten children who've just gotten candy from their teacher. She guided us through all the paperwork and we were shocked at the sheer number of decisions that we needed to make on the spot. Thankfully, she was patient and gave us the time to discuss and decide without rushing us along. Janell and I finally received our keys after handling all the paperwork involved. We were now the proud owners of a brand new property!

We walked out of HDB Hub to find the sun already on its downward descent. A quick look at the watch showed me that it was already 5.30pm.

"Oh man, it's so late already?" Janell complained, looking at the darkening sky. "Should we wait until tomorrow before visiting the new place?"

"No, darling, let's go now. I think we could still make it before dark. It's not far from here and if we scooted over quickly, we could get a good look at the place before complete darkness. Besides, we needed to work tomorrow as well so we might reach even later, which wouldn't be good for the ritual right?" I persuaded Janell.

"Hmm, you made a good point. Ok, then we better get a car from Grab. Taking the train would slow us down." Janell conceded.

"Right away!" I grinned as I whipped out my smartphone.

"Wait!" Janell stopped me, clutching at my arm to prevent me from launching the Grab app. "We need to buy a pineapple to roll it into the house after opening the door! That's the simple ritual that my shifu told me. We could buy it at the nearest fruit store. It would bring us good luck, and prevent evil spirits from coming into the house too. Come on!"

Janell hurried towards the row of shops behind HDB Hub and I followed, laughing. I didn't believe in these urban legends and myths but since my wife believed in them, it was easier to go along with her. After all, a happy wife meant a happy life. I didn't want to affect our positive moods, and besides, it didn't hurt to follow some rituals now and then, even if I wasn't convinced. We bought a big, ripe pineapple and brought along the well wishes of the store owner too, after he discovered that we were going to visit our new home.

We were on our way fairly soon but the sun had dipped lower in the sky by the time we reached our new estate. As the estate was newly opened up, there were still plenty of boarded up paths which proved to be barriers for us to navigate our way through to our block. The setting sun also casted a dark and gloomy atmosphere around the estate, and I couldn't help but felt a little spooked as we walked in circles to reach our block. Suppressing a shudder as another shadow leaped away from the corner of my eyes, I chided myself severely for being a coward. How could I call myself an atheist and jump at shadows?

"Hurry," Janell urged me as she stared at the dipping sun. "My shifu told me that we shouldn't open the door to a new home after dark. We also needed to roll that pineapple into the house before the sun set too."

"It would be ok, Janell. We'll be fine. You know I didn't believe in that sort of things right?" I blurted out, half in defiance to what I was feeling.

Janell glared at me and said nothing. She quickened her footsteps to the newly-minted lifts of our block instead. I knew I had said the wrong things and she was upset with me for saying that. She often warned me that spirits would be offended if we openly said that we didn't believe in them. I wisely kept my mouth shut and hurried after her. Janell tapped her foot impatiently as we waited for the lift to arrive at the first floor. She had her eyes on the setting sun. On my part, I was prepared to let her have her way if she proposed that we aborted the mission to open the door. Strangely, she did not suggest that, but instead, kept fidgeting, looking back and fro at the lift and the sun repeatedly. I took her hand and squeezed my silent apology. She squeezed my hand in return and I knew I was forgiven by my lovely wife.

The lift finally arrived and we bundled ourselves in quickly. Janell pressed the button for the twelve floor and the door began to close.

"Wait!" We heard a feeble shout and Janell immediately hit the button to hold the door. She was kind like this. She would always wait for someone else in need even when we were in a great hurry.

Janell politely held the door open for an old lady who was hobbling her way towards us, carrying a few plastic bags filled with incense papers and joss sticks. The old lady smiled at us and expressed her thanks as she came into the lift. A strong scent of jasmine flower filled the lift completely after the old lady entered, and it was so heavy that I felt choked. I coughed a little and glanced at my wife. Janell had turned pale but she maintained her composure and smiled at the old lady.

"Which floor were you going, Mdm?" Janell asked respectfully.

"Four", said the old lady, showing off a toothless grin as she tried to hold up four fingers despite her full hands.

Janell nodded and pressed the button for the fourth floor. The door closed silently and we were off. The scent of the jasmine flower was more bearable now that we got accustomed to it and I began to breathe normally again. I smiled at the old lady as she turned to look at us.

"Visiting your new house so late ah?" The old lady asked in a friendly manner.

"Yeah! We couldn't wait!" I replied enthusiastically.

"Ah, the joys of youth and life," beamed the old lady, somewhat sinisterly. "It's nice to see this place teeming with young folks and life again. It had been such a long time."

As the lift stopped and opened its door at the fourth floor, the old lady added, "Enjoy your visit, young ones. I have reached home. See you around." She hobbled out of the lift, turned a corner, and disappeared from our views. The lift door shut again.

Janell turned to me with a pale face and babbled, "Did you smell it? Did she say she have reached home? And that it is nice to see this place teeming with life again?"

"Yeah," I replied nonchalantly. "I think she meant that she is our neighbour and that she comes to see her new place the same way we do. Didn't you see all that incense papers and joss sticks she bought? She must be setting up some prayers in her new house."

"Which elderly would choose the fourth floor to stay? If she is that superstitious, she wouldn't want to stay on the fourth floor. Besides, that smell of that jasmine flower was unsettling, and not to mention her rather sinister smile." Janell added with a frown and a slight tremble of her shoulders.

"Maybe the joss sticks smelt of jasmine flowers. Relax, Janell. It'll be fine. Don't overthink. She is just our neighbour. I'm sure we would see her again soon." I reassured her, rubbing her shoulders gently even as her anxiety gripped my guts all too quickly as I thought about the weird encounter. I desperately tried to remember if I saw a shadow but my brain simply didn't register it.

The lift stopped at the twelve floor and we stepped out to see that the sun had almost set by now. The low lights from dusk coupled with the weak ceiling lights from the new estate gave an eerie feel to the lift lobby and the corridor that led to our unit. I shivered a little despite my solid beliefs that there were no ghosts in this world.

Janell didn't seem to notice the surroundings though. She was so hellbent on getting the ritual done for the day that she broke into a run towards our unit, dragging me by the hand.

"Hurry!" She beseeched. "Open the door before the sun set and roll the pineapple in. Remember to shout "Huat ah" when you roll the pineapple in."

So that was exactly what we did. We managed to roll the lucky pineapple into our new house right before the sun set. Janell was relieved that we managed it and she grinned at me as we stood in the middle of the empty unit after that. There was light from the street lamps that shone in through the windows and with the help of our little smartphone torchlight, we managed to walk through the house and revelled in the fact that this little house was ours. As it grew darker, we locked up the house and left, happy that we completed our little mission. The incident with the old lady was all but forgotten.

***

Janell and I went back to our new house the following day after work. We arrived around the same time as the day before by sacrificing our dinner. This time, we armed ourselves with a strong torchlight so that we could see the house properly even in the dark. We knew that we should visit during the weekends so that we could use the daylight for inspection, but I guessed we were both too excited and wanted to do whatever we could to speed things up.

"We need to do a proper inspection over the weekend and also get Uncle Soon to come and take a look with us." Janell looked at her phone scheduler while waiting for the lift.

"Yes, I had already call him today during lunch to inform him. He said he would let me know the time and day that he is free to come along with us this weekend." I replied, mindlessly pressing the lift button at the ground floor of our block again. The lifts were not functioning very well today. Both of them remained stuck at the fourth floor.

Uncle Soon was our contractor. He would be in charge of our renovations and making sure that our house would be done up in the way we wanted it to be. I knew that Janell was excited for this part of our journey. She had worked very hard with Uncle Soon to come up with the design of the house and I had enjoyed the ride as much as she did. She had a head for details and being artistic, she also had a good eye for colours and designs. The mock-up that Uncle Soon did for us looked like a mini Victorian mansion. Truth be told, I couldn't wait to see the final product!

The lift arrived eventually and we stepped in. Just as the door were closing, we heard a familiar voice shouting,

"Wait for me!"

Janell turned pale immediately, but pressed the door open button nonetheless to wait. Holding the door opened, we waited as the same old lady we met yesterday hurried up to the lift.

"Thank you, young ones." She smiled at us. "Why are you here again? Didn't you get to see the place yesterday evening?"

"We couldn't do much besides rolling the pineapple in," Janell replied stiffly with a plastic smile on her face. She was very pale as the scent of jasmine flowers instantly permeated the lift the moment the old lady entered. Once again, I coughed a little as the overwhelming scent attacked my senses, but this time, I took a closer look at her.

Dressed in a pair of matching blouse and trousers, the old lady looked to be about 70 years old. Her snow-white hair was in a neat bun at the back of her head and she walked with a slight limp. A shadow crossed her friendly face when Janell answered her stiffly. For a moment, she almost looked angry but her expression smoothed over and she nodded with a friendly smile. No matter how I looked at her, she didn't look like a ghost to me. I also made sure to check that she had a shadow.

Trying to make light of the situation, I chimed in.

"We came too late yesterday as our appointment at HDB took so long! We also had to work today, so we can only come now. But, we brought a huge light this time!" I brandished the huge torchlight that I was carrying.

"Ah," the old lady laughed mockingly. "You came prepared this time. Which unit were you at?"

"We are at #12-748. Come visit us some time." I responded politely while Janell turned a shade paler at my answer and dug her nails into my arm. I turned to look at her, confused.

The lift stopped at the fourth floor and again, the old lady said, this time with a smirk, "I have reached home. I'll see you soon." She walked out, turned the corner and disappeared from view.

Once the lift door closed, Janell exploded.

"You moron! Why did you tell her our unit number and even invited her? You should know that she is trouble, didn't you? You know that she is just wrong. You know…and yet…you idiot…You've doomed us."

Janell broke down. Her fear and anxiety took a huge toll on her small frame as she stood there, crying. I took her into my arms.

"It's alright, Janell. She is just a kind, old lady. She isn't a ghost. Relax. She is our neighbour. She just happened to come home around the same time as we do." I downplayed the situation as much as I could, even as guilt ripped through me like a razor sharp knife. I kicked myself for the blunder, but it was too late to do anything about it now. I could only comfort my agitated wife.

"That smell she carried with her. It's the smell of death. Even you could tell, right?" Janell sobbed. "The old lady wasn't carrying anything this time and the scent of jasmine flowers was still as overwhelming as it was yesterday."

"It's probably her perfume, my dear. Nothing would happen to us. We are not doomed." I lowered my voice and continued to hold Janell close. Seeing how upset Janell was, I wan't sure now, if it was a smart thing to do, revealing our unit number and inviting the old lady to visit us. Janell was shaking like a leaf in my arms and I began to think that perhaps I had committed the biggest blunder of my life. I wasn't sure why she was so upset, but I guessed it was not a laughing matter to Janell.

The lift door slid opened at the twelve floor and we stepped out of the lift to find that the lights at the corridor weren't working. The sun had set by now and it was pitch dark beyond the lift lobby. Since our block was facing away from the main road and the estate was somehow in darkness, the whole area was unlit. The eerie atmosphere gave me the creeps and that spooky feeling that I felt yesterday came rushing back in full force. A terrible sense of dread arose in me and I turned to my wife, who had stopped crying.

"Janell, if you are not up to it, maybe we should leave and come back over the weekends. The lights aren't working now and we probably couldn't see anything even with our strong torchlight anyway. We could go for a nice dinner instead." I suggested gently, hoping that she would say yes.

"It's alright. I'm fine. I need to see our house now. Seeing the empty unit would give me a huge reassurance. So maybe we would just open the door, check it and leave?" Janell answered shakily.

"Alright. Let's do that then." I smiled and holding her tightly, we made our way along the pitch dark corridor to our unit, lighting our way with the torchlight.

Unlocking the door, I looked at Janell, who was trying to compose herself. Her outburst had given her a red nose and puffy eyes, and when I looked at her, illuminated by the torchlight, I couldn't help but burst out laughing. She looked so cute like that. Janell blushed and then, thumping me on the chest, began to giggle as well. I was glad that the tension was lifted as I unlocked the door.

Throwing the door opened grandly, I exclaimed, "Welcome home, my dear!"

"Aaagah!!" Janell screamed, clutching my arms in fright as she stared wide-eyed at something within the unit.

Whipping my glance into the unit when Janell screamed, I jumped as well. Standing inside the unit, the same old lady who had gotten off the lift at the fourth floor waved a hello and smiled ominously.

"H…How?" I stuttered, in utter confusion. "How…How did you get in?"

"Why, young one, you invited me, didn't you? Or have you forgotten this lonely old woman so quickly?" The old lady smirked as she glided towards us, hands outstretched.

"Come inside now, and let me take good care of you." She grinned, showing off razor-sharp teeth. I stared in horror. Didn't the old lady showed us a toothless grin yesterday in the lift?

"Run! Just run!" Janell shrieked, grabbing me by the arm and trying to pull me away.

I was transfixed. Terrified. I couldn't move. My whole body had shut down the moment I saw the old lady gliding toward us. I dropped the only weapon that could helped us — the giant torchlight. My mind could only think of Janell's words. "You have doomed us". Her prediction had came true. In a heroic attempt, I tried to push Janell away from me as the old lady latched onto me, but it was too late. The old lady dragged both of us into the house with surprising strength and the door slammed shut, trapping us in the darkness. The spectre flung us onto the hard concrete floor and I tried to protect Janell as much as I could with my body. The knock on my head, however, was too much to bear and I passed out.

When I came to, I noticed that the house was quiet. I didn't know what time it was. The house was extremely cold and the chill could only be described as abnormal. We were near the window in the living room, and the deafening silence was oppressive. Janell was still out cold in my arms and I feared for her life as I scrambled to check her pulse. I breathed a sense of relief when I found her strong pulse beating away.

"Janell," I called softly. "Janell, wake up."

Janell moaned softly and moved against me. I noticed her arms were bleeding from peculiar cuts. The cuts were skin-deep, but they were all bleeding. Such cuts wouldn't draw blood usually. I tried to stop the bleeding, but it wouldn't cease. I ached all over, and my back was in a lot of pain. I guessed that I hurt my lower back badly. How long had we been out cold? Janell was shivering and I tried to warm her up as best as I could with my business jacket. The room was icy cold though, and there was no help at all. Yet, I knew that the weather was still warm outside. There was no moon, but I sensed the warmth radiating from the window. Nothing made sense to me as my thought ran into one another.

Trying hard to calm myself down, I tried to shift myself so that Janell could press up against the warm wall of the living room. Pain shot through me as I moved. Clenching my teeth to prevent myself from moaning, I half carried Janell into a sitting position against the wall. She groaned in pain and woke up, staring at me, wide-eyed with fright.

What could I do now? We were locked in our own house supernaturally and I knew instinctively that the door wasn't going to open up with my keys. Even if I tried, we were both hurt and likely wouldn't be able to go far. Moreover, where was that spectre? I couldn't believe that I was having such thoughts. What happened to me? Spirits and ghosts were supposed to exist only in our imagination!

"Call for help," Janell whispered, as she drew herself closer to me. My business jacket was doing its job. She felt warmer now compared to just a few minutes ago.

Where's my phone? I frantically searched my pockets. It was nowhere to be found. Where could it be? As I glanced around, I saw a wee, flickering green light near the front door. There! My phone had dropped when we were dragged into the house.

"My phone dropped," I explained to Janell. "I need to crawl over to get it back."

"Wait," Janell mumbled, digging her hand inside her hand bag. "My phone should be here somewhere." She triumphantly produced her phone in a couple of seconds and shoved it to me.

Right, now we could call someone to come. I thought about who I should call and immediately settled on my buddy, Arnold. He was dependable and I knew that as a gamer, he wouldn't be asleep at this time of the night. I could tell him that we had an accident in the new house and asked him to come over to fetch us. He could bring the rest of the gang too. Feeling hopeful, I started to key in his number. Then I stopped short.

There was no signal.

I showed Janell the phone silently and felt her shudders as she looked at the screen. She turned to look at me, and her eyes implored me to do something.

"I'll crawl over to retrieve my phone. Maybe there is a jam on your phone. Try to turn it on and off for now while I get my phone back." I whispered bravely as I pushed Janell's phone back to her.

"No," she grabbed me. "It's too dangerous. If my phone has no signal, yours would be the same. Maybe she is just waiting for you to crawl over."

"We don't know where she is, or even what she is. Why is a ghost material enough to grab us? And if she isn't a ghost, then what is she? How could she had that much strength? We need to find out." I insisted stubbornly.

"No, please don't leave me here." Janell begged.

"I'll be fine, darling. Wait here. I created this mess, so I would find a way to get you out." I promised her with a hug.

Foolishly, I began to inch my way forward, one step at a time. Pain shot through my back and down my legs as I tried to move. I clenched my fists to prevent myself from crying out and kept going. Sheer determination to protect my wife was the only thing in my mind. Crawling on the ground with my injured back was agony, and ironically, it brought back memories of my army days. I put those training into good use now, and slowly, I progressed toward that small, flickering light of hope.

Janell gripped her phone tightly as she watched. She couldn't take her eyes off me. Her collective wisdom in spirituality told her that it was useless to try and fix her phone as it was the doing of the spectre we saw. As I inched closer to my fallen phone, Janell curled herself into a ball and began to rock herself to and fro, even if her eyes continued to stay fixated on me.

"What do you think you could achieve by claiming back your phone, young one?" A soft, but familiar voice rang out when I was a few inches away from hope.

I froze. Turning my head slowly to the left, I saw the old lady sitting on a rocking chair in the dining area, smirking at me nefariously.

Where did that rocking chair came from?

"Did you think that you could call for help with that?" She continued to taunt. "Give it up, young one. There is no signal on your wife's phone, isn't it? There wouldn't be any signal on yours too."

Fear gripped my heart as I stared at her hatefully. Glancing back at Janell, I saw that she was still curled into a ball. She groaned miserably as she rocked herself to and fro, going faster and faster as she tried to calm herself down.

What had I done? I bemoaned to myself silently. I had ruined my chance of a happy life by not believing. My entire life, up to that moment, had been a life of practicality. My parents were not the religious kind and our family had never followed any religion or faith. My father believed that humans had the will to live for ourselves and to make decisions that affected our lives completely. There was no Creator, nor were there spirits and ghosts. Growing up in such a family, I had never questioned that. Now, with evidence in my face, I was overwhelmed by shock, fear and doubts. Guilt ripped through me as I recalled all the times that Janell warned me about spirituality and how my attitude would get me into trouble one day. The despairing thing was that now that trouble had come, I had no knowledge of getting out of it. To make matters worse, I had dragged my precious wife into the mess with me. I regretted not listening to Janell and berated myself for being such a moron.

"You must not give up if you want to give Janell a fighting chance of walking out of this alive!" My inner voice chimed in. "Quit feeling sorry for yourself and think!"

Yes, I needed to fight my negative thoughts and this old hag if I wanted to give Janell a chance of walking out of this alive! Now that my disbeliefs had led us down this path, what I could do was to believe that perhaps, I could appease this apparition.

Forcing myself to stay calm, I sat on the floor facing the old lady. Scrutinising her, I noticed that she was indeed what I would call a ghost. There was this transparency to her as she continued to sit on her rocking chair, smiling nastily as she regarded me with a malevolent look. She was still dressed in the same matching pair of blouse and trousers but her hair was no longer in a neat bun. It was messy and hung all over her as she looked on. The strong jasmine scent was also gone, replaced by a somehow decaying smell. It was dark and the wall blocked out the light where she sat. However, she glowed with an eerie white light, both her and the rocking chair as she continued to watch me from her position. She looked completely different from the old lady we saw in the lift.

"What do you want with us?" Summoning all my courage, I demanded in a clear voice. I was proud of myself for that, even when I was shaking like a leaf in the wind. Perhaps the constant pain in my body had kept me grounded and gave me courage. Or maybe it was my love for Janell. I couldn't be sure anymore.

"Hahahahahahaha!" The old lady started laughing in a shrill voice that was different from before. She screeched her pleasure as she rocked to and fro on her chair. "Hahahahahahaha!" The white glow grew brighter as she howled her amusement at my question. Both the light and the high-pitched voice overwhelmed me and I crimped into a ball in fright.

"AaaAgaaaahhh! No! No!" Janell's screams gave me courage to raise my head again. I glanced at her behind me. She had uncurled herself and she was covering her ears with her hands. Wide-eyed with fear, she stared unseeingly at me as she continued to rock herself to and fro while screaming at the top of her voice. My heart pounded harder and my resolve hardened. Janell was losing it! I needed to get this over soon if I wanted to save her from insanity.

"Stop laughing!" I yelled at the old hag. "Stop! Just Stop!"

The apparition stopped laughing. She crossed her legs and watched me, obviously entertained at my brave outburst even as Janell continued screaming. I crawled as fast as I could back to her, and gently took her into my arms. Janell recoiled in horror, pushing me away with all her strength.

"Janell! It's me, it's me. It's okay." I clutched her tightly as she fought me but she eventually calmed down enough to stop screaming. Her eyes remained fixated at the spot where I was previously, whispering gibberish to herself as she held onto me.

The vile spectre appeared at the spot I vacated, putting herself in between us and my phone. I knew it was hopeless now. There wouldn't be any help. I had to resolve this by myself if I wanted to save my wife.

"Leave her here, and I would let you live." The old lady spoke in the same familiar voice again. "She knows who and what I am now, and I wouldn't let her go. She would become one of us, and haunt this place forever."

"NO!" I roared my objection as I hugged Janell closer. "There's no way in Hell that I would leave her and walk out of here alone!"

"Oh, really?" The old lady smiled viciously. "How would you protect her? Would you care to show me?" As she derided me with her insults, she reached out her left hand and it began to grow longer. I stared at it in complete paralysis; I couldn't move. I couldn't push Janell out of the way either. There was nothing I could do except to fix my eyes on the hand in horror as it drew nearer to us.

The old lady began to laugh in her shrill voice again as she latched onto Janell's left shoulder. With a quick jerk of her long arm, she snatched Janell out of my grip and pulled her swiftly away from me. Janell shrieked as blood splattered all over the floor and onto the walls. She howled in pain as she was slammed onto the floor besides the rocking chair, blood flying everywhere. I was shocked beyond my senses when I saw Janell's arm laying on the floor in front of me. The monster had severed Janell's arm completely! The copious amount of blood that was gathering around Janell as she laid moaning on the floor was unbelievable.

"You bitch!" I hollered, leaping at her, my own fear and pain forgotten as I tried to get to my wife. A cold wind slammed me into the wall and my battered body collapsed into a heap. I gasped in shock as my brain tried to register the pain all over my body. I couldn't feel my legs and the pain that was radiating from my back began to blur my vision.

"What a useless guy." The old lady scoffed. "You don't deserve a wife like her." Through my blurred vision as I struggled against the pain and shock, I saw her picking Janell up from the floor, blood still dripping from her severed arm. Janell groaned from the pain but she was no longer fighting it. Her limp body hung in mid-air as the old lady swung her around like a toy, splattering more of her blood on the walls and floor.

"Janell!" I wailed pitifully with my hand outstretched. "Answer me!"

"Leave her!" The old lady commanded in a roar. "Or DIE!"

I slumped to the ground. I didn't know what to do anymore. Should I fight? Would she hurt Janell more if I did? If I walked away now, I might be able to get help somewhere, but who would believe me? And wouldn't it be too late to save Janell if I had to convince someone else? What should I do? Totally defeated, I cradled my head in my hands miserably and cried. The hopelessness I felt had erased my fears completely. There was a numbness in my psyche, as if I was watching this nightmare separated from myself.

"Leave!" The spectre shrieked again. "OUT of that door, NOW!" I looked up to see that she was pointing at the front door with her right hand while Janell hung limply in her left. The scene was so absurd that I began to laugh manically. Janell hung like a limp rag in the air, no longer moving. I knew she was dead. She had to be. I had killed my wife by my disbeliefs. I covered my face with my hands again and weeped loudly, crushed beyond hope.

"Not leaving?" The apparition mocked, her face twisted into a sinister smile. "Looks like death had knocked on your door."

I heard a loud thud as she dropped Janell's body on the floor as she once again, began to shriek with laughter.

"Hahahahahaha! Look at you, young one. Totally defeated, eh? Are you feeling hopeless yet? Do you fear me now? This is your reward for not believing! This is why you shouldn't mock us with your disbelief! Now, DIE!"

Glancing up, the last thing I saw was the manic face of the old hag leering at me as her bloodied left hand reached out to me. Then there was nothing but darkness.